Community approval for the Baldwin School (formerly Agassiz) was achieved after more than two years of planning and neighborhood debate. Since 1875 elementary schools had stood on the site of the Baldwin School, and HMFH made every effort to preserve the memory and spirit of the school it replaced. The 1916 school was bursting at its seams with only 13 classrooms, a makeshift library in an old boiler room; and had no gym, cafeteria, art, or music rooms.

The new four-story building (plus below-grade community level) contains two classrooms each for grades K-8, with pairs sharing a project room. The middle school occupies the third level and shares two large corner rooms for science and art. The sun-filled top-floor library incorporates original beams and wood paneling from the old school, and its cozy story-telling alcove is reached through a doorway, complete with original leaded glass transom, saved from the old school.

Today, Baldwin students have a cafeteria, gym, and performance space-features virtually nonexistent in the old school. As in the library, doorways are reused, including the old main entrance, that now leads to the new cafeteria.

Each classroom features computers, printers, video connections, and telephones. Access to the computer network is available from every office, activity space, and the 24-station computer classroom. The school is also linked to the city-wide computer network and the Internet.